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Critics of foreign meddlers should look in the mirror

Liam Fay

Many of those who decry Farage’s intrusion are happy for the taoiseach to lecture Trump

John Mahoney was anything but a jingoistic American. The acclaimed actor, who died last weekend aged 77, was best known for his linchpin performance as cranky, exasperated, gleefully low-brow Marty Crane in the superior US sitcom Frasier. In person, however, Mahoney was genial, thoughtful and cultured.

His fondness for Ireland and Irish literature is well documented. He was a frequent visitor, performing regularly at the Galway arts festival. Despite his hibernophile instincts, however, he was irked and baffled by what he saw as a deepening strain of anti-Americanism within Ireland.

Mahoney’s sensitivities on this front may have been heightened by his complicated biography. English by birth, Scots-Irish by descent and an American citizen by choice, he grew up in Blackpool. His father, a baker from…

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